“Thank ye. I’ll be sending ye a case of Celsius every week for the rest of my life.”
“Please, Lucas,” she laughs. “A case would only last me a day or two. But throw in some Flaming Hot Cheetos and you’ll be my favorite person forever.”
“Ye have it, lass.” As I disconnect the call, a faint flicker of light fills my chest.
It’s hope.
I finally have a target.
Catriona…
If I thought I smelled as bad as it could get this morning, I was wrong.
Édouard’s face falls as he hurries into the dining room. “Bon sang, what has he- Here, mademoiselle, let me help you up. I’ll get a robe.”
I’m already tearing at the back of the dress, the thin silk ripping like tissue paper. “Give me your jacket.”
“Je vous demande pardon?”He looks horrified, as if he’s the one stripping off his clothes.
“I’m not sitting here in a puddle of my own sick.” It’s taking everything in me not to hurl my dinner plate at his head. Most of the dress drops to the shining walnut floor and I kick the hoopskirt away.
“Of- of course, here.” His long butler’s jacket is off in an instant and he’s holding it out, while looking everywhere but at me.
“Thank ye.” His coat smells like tobacco and sage, oddly comforting. Wrapping it tightly around me, I lift my chin. “Can ye direct me back to my room?”
His face droops into an expression of deep desolation. “Of course. Follow me, please.”
My shoes are off and Édouard’s footsteps are nearly silent on the marble floor. “So, does your boss often poison his dinner guests?”
“The ones he likes? That is unusual,” he says apologetically. We pass three more sets of guards, all of them brandishing rifles. “My most sincere apologies, Miss MacTavish.”
Pausing outside my room, I lean closer, whispering, precisely shaping every word. “If you are truly remorseful, Édouard, you would help me get out of here.”
He shakes his head sadly. “I am not that remorseful. Goodnight.”
I’m gonna kill fecking Hugo. I was thinkin’ of sparing Édouard, but I might have changed my mind.
The next morning…
I wake up feeling scunnered. Throwing up my dinner removed the immediate threat of the mushrooms, but while the Acetylcysteine keeps the poison from killing me, it does nothing for the side effects.
Today will not be a good day.
With impeccable timing, Eloise knocks and brings in my breakfast tray.
“I’m not gonna be able to touch that,” I wheeze, turning pale. “Will ye please get it out of here?”
She still looks like she could tear my head off, but she unbends enough to hold up a delicate bone china coffee cup.
“Aye, please leave that,” I say gratefully.
She bustles around a bit, folding a towel and straightening some knick knacks. When she heads into the dressing room and returns with one of the white lab coats, I’m engulfed in fury.
“That fecking bastard thinks I’m gonna play lab with him today after poisoning me? That son ofa-”
“S'il te plaît,”Eloise whispers.“Fais ce qu'il te demande. Il s'en prendra à moi si tu refuses.”
“He’ll hurtyouif I dinnae play along?”
